Blog: Oilers defeat Canes, Khudobin, 2-1

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Final: Canes 1, Oilers 2: Matt Hendricks and Justin Schultz scored Sunday in the Edmonton Oilers’ 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. Anton Khudobin faced 30 shots in his first start for the Canes in five games.

10:58 3rd: Canes 1, Oilers 2: The Edmonton Oilers take a 2-1 lead over the Carolina Hurricanes midway through the third period after a power play goal for Justin Schultz.

End of 2nd: Canes 1, Oilers 1: The second period went scoreless as the Canes and the Oilers are still tied at 1. The Edmonton Oilers have now one shot more on goal than the Canes as we are at the second intermission.

End of 1st: Canes 1, Oilers 1: Jordan Staal ties the game up with 17 seconds to go in the first period on an assist from his brother Eric. The Canes and the Oilers are tied at 1 after the first period as both teams each have 11 shots on goal.

Both teams failed to score on their power plays opportunities in the first period as the Canes had 2 opportunities and the Oilers had 1.

13:17 1st: Canes 0, Oilers 1: The Edmonton Oilers took an early lead over the Canes as Anton Lander scored his first goal of the season assisted by Matt Hendricks.

The Edmonton Oilers close out a four-game road trip on Sunday afternoon as they visit the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Oilers are 1-1-1 on the swing, falling in defeat to the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in a shootout on Friday.

Ryan Smyth scored in the third period for Edmonton and Viktor Fasth made 22 saves, but yielded the lone shootout tally of the game to Tomas Tatar in the third round.

Taylor Hall had a chance to extend the tiebreaker, but failed in his attempt.

"I wish we would have got a better result. I thought our guys worked hard for it," said Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins.

Eakins will go back to Ben Scrivens in net today, though he is winless in two previous meetings with the Hurricanes. He has posted a 3.09 goals against average in those encounters.

In 11 starts since being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings, Scrivens has gone 5-6-0 with a 2.64 GAA and .929 save percentage.

Edmonton sits last in the Western Conference with 55 points, while Carolina is failing to keep pace in the East's playoff race. The Hurricanes have lost eight of their last 11 games and have slipped eight points back of the second wild card position in the conference.

The 'Canes had a two-game win streak snapped with Saturday's 5-1 setback to the hosting Boston Bruins. Alexander Semin scored 3:53 into the third period to pull Carolina to within one, but Boston later put the game away by scoring twice in a 13-second span.

Semin has four goals and five assists over a seven-game point streak, while Cam Ward came up with 36 stops in defeat.

"Our best players tonight did not play the way they are capable of," said Carolina head coach Kirk Muller. "It was early in the game that we had to push back and we didn't."

Muller may opt to go with Anton Khudobin in net this afternoon to wrap up games on back-to-back days. Khudobin is 2-0-0 with a 0.86 GAA versus the Oilers, stopping 40-of-41 shots faced over one start and one relief appearance.

The Hurricanes had won two straight over the Oilers before dropping a 5-4 overtime decision in Edmonton on Dec. 10. Jeff Skinner scored a late goal in the third period as Carolina overcame a 4-1 deficit to force extra time, but the Oilers' Jordan Eberle won it with a power-play goal 1:48 into overtime.

Ward yielded all five goals on 29 shots faced.

The 'Canes did notch a 7-1 victory the last time the clubs met in Carolina back on Nov. 9, 2010. Skinner had a goal and two assists in that game, while Eric Staal had four assists.

common taterMar 16, 2014

Tough game to watch yesterday...Boston really dominated. Seeing a game like that makes it easy to give up on the season. But the Canes have rallied before...we'll find out soon if they have what it takes or not. GO CANES